Kolkata: If all goes according to the plans of the International Cricket Council (ICC), cricket is set to enter the upcoming Olympics as an event after 124 long years in the 2024 Olympics, according to ICC chief executive Dave Richardson. Whether or not to bid for cricket in the prestigious tournament shall be decided within the month of June, but according to Richardson most of the members would be in favour of bidding.
“I think the majority of the members and certainly myself think the time is right and we’ve come to the conclusion that the overall benefit to the game in terms of globalising and growing it outweigh any negatives, so I’m hoping,” said Richardson, speaking at the SportsPro conference. He further added, “We need to make a decision by July so we can make an application in time for September, when, I understand it, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) will consider new sports for 2024.”
The last time cricket was included in the Olympics was back in the year 1900 where only two teams Great Britain and France were included in the Paris Olympics. This time though, the ICC wants to include the modern and latest version of the game, which is T20 cricket in the upcoming 2024 Olympics. “T20 is the ideal format and we’d say even better than rugby sevens as it’s actually one of the mainstream formats of cricket,” said Richardson.
The venue of the 2024 Olympics has not been decided yet but only two options are available, that of Los Angeles and Paris. This according to the ICC chief executive is a great opportunity for the sport to expand its popularity and reach. “Neither LA nor Paris would be a disaster for us, in fact both would be opportunistic, especially the US option,” he said. Both, the United States and France haven’t been cricket playing nations. Seeing teams play the entertaining version of the game may sprout the urges of the audience to play the game on a primary basis, you never know.
Richardson said that the IOC had warned the ICC that it had to promise to send the best players to the games. This however may be a big concern for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as the Ashes series takes place at a time when the Olympics are on.
Including cricket in the list of games to be played in the Olympics doesn’t necessarily mean that any other sport would be affected due to this. However, due to the IOC limiting the number of athletes participating, only 6 to 8 teams can fit in. “They (IOC) have not said a sport would have to go (to make way for us) but they said when taking any decision on new sport they have put an overall limit on the number of athletes, so as a team sport we would only fit six to eight teams,” said Richardson.
(With inputs from PTI)